Quote:
Originally Posted by Oberon
We've let economic sense overrule common sense too much, and it's going to bite us in the arse one day.
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The problem is, like common sense is unfortunately not very common, economic sense is neither very economic.
If I'd borrowed 99 cents and promise to either pay back one dollar next month or one cent each day over the course of the next 10 years, most would take the first offer.
This short-sightedness is reflected not only that people often do not put in things like durability in a purchase decision. No, people saw off the branch they sit on. "Oh, I bought some nice wood panels from wall-mart for cheap. And have you heard that Uncle Joe lost his job in the sawmill last month? Damned Obama!"
This is just one example of the costs which are not in the calculation. There are other costs, costs everyone has to pay in their own country: for unemployment benefits, industrial subsides, bail-outs, etc.
About the human costs we had a good discussion on here some months ago:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=191956
Apropos Obama: funny that people who call him a Socialist who wants to destroy freedom seem to have no problem to support the biggest dictatorship in the world when buying stuff from China.
Another bill everyone pays are the environment costs, here's a good report about it, how it effects us on a global level:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment...tion-nightmare